KiCAD Help

[Christer Karlsson]

I have real trouble finding Right Angle Toggle Switches in KiCAD (9.0),  I am unable find any symbols and footprints.  The retailers have plenty of switches of the type I am looking for (Toggle Switch, Through Hole Right Angle, SPDT On-On), but I cannot find one that I can get the symbols and footprint for.

What do you normally do? Create your own symbol and footprint from the datasheet?

/C

[Ed Porter]

There's probably a SPDT switch symbol you can use, but in general yes
you do have to draw a lot of footprints yourself and put them in your
own library. It makes some sense, therefore, to buy more than you need
of those components, to save you the bother the next time. You might
also consider printing your designs at 1:1 scale on paper to make sure
the component fits before sending them to be manufactured.

-ed

[Wayne Hortensius]

On Sun, 11 May 2025 Christer Karlsson wrote:

> What do you normally do? Create your own symbol and footprint from
> the datasheet?

Sometimes. And sometimes I'll take something that's close and modify
it. And I'll echo what Ed Porter wrote about printing the footprint out
at 1:1 and checking the fit.

Also, any footprints downloaded from the net should not be given the
benefit of the doubt in either size or pad assignment. I've learned to
check both those the hard way.

Regards,
Wayne

[Christer Karlsson]

Ed and Wayne, thank you!

/C

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[Tom Storey]

I'd highly recommend taking the time to learn how to draw symbols and create footprints.

Once you can do those two things there is literally nothing you can't design, because anything that is missing you can create quickly enough and continue. It's an excellent skill to have.

I came from EAGLE and this was the first thing I learned how to do. I tend to find myself creating a lot of my own symbols and footprints that more closely match the style I got used to (and prefer in some ways) in EAGLE. That made the transition to KiCad so much easier. :-)

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[Rob Gray]

I used Altium but the same advice as above applies. Draw your own. I have 1000s of components in my personal library and I often modify them for each schematic to make the drawing more readable, for example with this RS485 transceiver I added the internal bits so it was really clear what connects to what.

. 

Most pre-canned components are crap designs, often just mimicking the actual pinout, which usually makes reading the schematic a real chore.

[Mark Pruden]

Another alternative is to find components online. I have used the following and it can be useful.

https://www.snapeda.com/kicad/

[Christer Karlsson]

Thanks, glad my first try was something as simple as a on-on switch. Make the schematics was no problem, little more struggle with the footprint.

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[Mark T]

When creating footprints the pads don’t always have pins on a 0.1” grid. It can be easier if you change the grid in the cad to match the pin spacing. Sometimes setting the grid to suit horizontal pin spacing and then change it to set up the vertical spacing. If this doesn’t work then type the x and y coordinates.

I’m still using eagle 7.6, but expect kicad might be similar for footprints.

[Christer Karlsson]

Yes, changing the grid size made a lot of difference

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[Tom Storey]

KiCads default grid in the schematic editor (and probably symbol editor too) is 0.05", but I personally find this too compact, and I do everything on a 0.1" grid. It requires more space but I find it easier to follow parallel lines at this spacing. I rarely ever use any other grid size for schematic or symbol editing.

Pins on packages pretty much have to be spaced a minimum of 0.1" apart to avoid a mess of text and pins overlapping, so I feel that a 0.1" overall grid makes more sense anyway.

And yeah, please DONT make schematic symbols that are just a copy of the package pinout. Its a horrible practice, and tends to result in messy and complicated schematic drawings to get signals where they need to be. I try to design my symbols for "inputs on the left, outputs on the right" so that everything flows from one side of the page to the other too, with some exceptions. A schematic should be a logical/functional representation of the circuit, the PCB is for the physical representation. Dont confuse the two.</rant> :-)

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